Ludos
by GirlWithTheGreenHat
Summary: Tony calls Paige for dinner, and she's not responding. Warning: Mention of possible suicide, minor blood. Could or couldn't be padlock, it's your call.


"Paige!" Tony called from the kitchen as he placed the plates on the table. "It's time for dinner, come down here please!"

Paige didn't usually respond on the first try or two, she had a habit of ignoring him. She was probably lost in her work again, which is why she ignored him 82.7% of the time.

"Paige!" He called again, nothing. He soon realized he'd have to go up and get her himself. He sighed and started up the stairs.

"Why can't that girl just leave her door open?" Tony muttered to himself. He turned the corner, walked down the hall, twisted the doorknob, and opened the door. The lights were off. Paige looked like she had fallen asleep at her desk again. Strange, it was only 6:00, she was never tired this early. Tony flicked the light switch, and the room illuminated. He walked over and shook her a little.

"Paige, get up, now is not the time for sleeping." He said. She didn't move. Alright, if that's how she's going to be…

He turned her chair around, and pushed her off into the floor.

"GET UP I SAID!" He hollered at the limp body. She wasn't moving at all, or making any kind of sound. He gave her a light kick, and noticed Paige wasn't breathing either. He looked over at her desk, then the floor. No blood anywhere, she couldn't have stabbed herself. No medicine bottles or empty bottles of alcohol, she didn't try to off herself for fun. No signs that she was attacked, she was just suddenly dead out of no where.

Tony felt something in his chest leap with fear. Was she dead for good? Had her time finally run out? Impossible, she still had billions of years left on her clock. There were still humans on this pathetic dirtball planet, she couldn't be dead.

Unless, of course, she had lied about that. Maybe she was just under that assumption that she would go out with the humans, maybe she had been oblivious to her actual expiration date the entire time.

He dropped down on his knees next to her, and flipped her over to face him. Her eyes were open, but entirely still. Her chest didn't rise and fall steadily, and then he realized, she really was dead. Somehow, Paige was gone. It wasn't by his hand, it wasn't the way either of them had expected, her time had simply run out.

Tony felt weak, just a moment ago he was a god among mortals, and suddenly he felt less meaningful than the most pathetic of them all. He held Paige's lifeless body, and he actually started crying. Crying was not something Tony did often, for some reason it was just a bit of a challenge for him. Now, it was no problem. In fact, he couldn't get himself to stop crying at this point. He leaned against the side of her bed, still holding her, and kept crying. How had this happened? How? He just saw her this morning when she woke up next to him, she was fine. She showed no signs of sickness, or that anything could be wrong. They had breakfast together, perhaps her food was poisoned? No, she would have died sooner. And even then, she would have regenerated. Poison isn't enough to keep either of them down for good.

Suddenly, he heard… a laugh?

His head shot up, and glanced around. Was someone in here, laughing at his sorrow? Tony stood up and drew his sword from it's sheath on his hip, wiping the tears from his eyes. He'll teach them to laugh at him at such a time like this. He realized the laughing was coming from behind him, and he spun around, ready to decapitate whatever was laughing at him with his black twisted blade. Then he realized something else - It was Paige that was laughing. Paige was lying on her bedroom floor, looking up at him, laughing.

Now the poor old clock was just confused. She was just dead a second ago, how could she be laughing? The dead don't laugh!

"Gotchya!" She said between giggles.

"…What?" Tony asked.

"I really got you, you really fell for that!" Paige laughed even harder.

"Y-you're not really dead?" Tony stuttered.

"No, you stupid idiot! I really can't believe you fell for that!" She tried to stand up, but fell down, laughing even harder than before. She was really enjoying herself.

Tony felt his face burn with embarrassment, he had gotten pranked. The embarrassment quickly changed to rage, and he grabbed her by the hair and pinned her against the wall, his sword to her throat. She still laughed.

"Did you really think that was FUNNY?" He growled at her. His face was only inches from her own, and she could see his eyes burning crimson in pure rage. All she could do was nod in response, any attempts to speak were covered by her maniacal laughter.

"I thought you were actually DEAD!" Tony screamed, sticking his blade through her shoulder. She had forgotten how much he hated to be pranked, but at the moment she thought it was well worth it. Paige tried biting her lip to quiet herself, but even the sharp pain couldn't stop her from laughing. She was really getting a kick out of this. He threw her down on the bed, her laughing subsiding a little. He got on top of her, one leg on either side, and rested the point of his weapon right over the center of her chest.

"Now, I'm going to kill you for real." He yelled, and those were the last words Paige heard. He plunged his sword through her chest, blood covering both the bed and Paige. He twisted it some and then pushed it up through her throat, making sure to make it hurt as bad as possible. When she finally stopped moving, she was still smiling. For some reason, she had found it all to be absolutely hilarious.

Tony sighed deeply, feeling a little better. He wiped her blood off his sword and sheathed it, then grabbed Paige's ankle. He dragged her off the bed, through the halls, down the stairs, into the kitchen, and then stuffed her body under the sink. It was a tight fit but he managed to make it by breaking a few of her bones. He used a paper towel to get some of the blood out of his gloves as he watched blood drip out from the cabinet door and pool there before he sat down at the kitchen table, across from where Paige would be sitting if she wasn't dead. As he took a sip of his tea he noticed from the corner of his eye, one of the three residents of the house peering around the corner at him, terror in his eyes. He was still pissed off over that stupid prank, maybe he'd take it out on them later.


End file.
